Sunday, July 30, 2006

SB running the 3-2-1 on Pikes Peak this morning. What is a 3-2-1? Drive to the top of Pikes Peak, 14,110', run 3 miles down the trail to A-Frame (Timberline, 12,000'), turn around and run back to the summit, turn around and run back down to 2 miles to go sign, turn around and run back to the summit, turn around and run back down to the one mile to go sign, turn around and run back to the summit. 12 miles all above 12,000' elevation. My uphill splits were 16:16, 14:57, 18:31 for the first three miles; 14:14, 18:59 for the next two miles; and 21:16 on the last mile.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

"Consider, for instance, the following passage from a speech called 'The Price of Empire,' by the great dissenter against the Vietnam War Senator William Fulbright.

'Before the Second World War our world role was a potential role; we were important in the world for what we could do with our power, for the leadership we might provide, for the example we might set. Now the choices are almost gone: we are almost the world's self-appointed policeman; we are almost the world defender of the status quo. We are well on our way to becoming a traditional great power -- an imperial nation if you will -- engaged in the exercise of power for its own sake, exercising it to the limit of our capacity and beyond, filling every vacuum and extending the American ‘presence' to the farthest reaches of the earth. And, as with the great empires of the past, as the power grows, it is becoming an end in itself, separated except by ritual incantation from its initial motives, governed, it would seem, by its own mystique, power without philosophy or purpose. That describes what we have almost become…'

Is there a single word -- with the possible exception of 'almost' at the end of the paragraph -- that fails to apply to the country's situation today? Or consider this passage from Fulbright's The Arrogance of Power with the Iraq venture in mind:

'Traditional rulers, institutions, and ways of life have crumbled under the fatal impact of American wealth and power but they have not been replaced by new institutions and new ways of life, nor has their breakdown ushered in an era of democracy and development.'"

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

James Wolcott: World War Two-and-a-Half: "President Bush speaks to the camera: 'We're going to call it World War III, but there'll be no draft of your precious darling geniuses, no tax increases, no sacrifice demanded, and I promise not to preempt your favorite programs, such as American Idol.'

Sustainable and vegetarian cuisine is on show in Sin City: "Quick: Where can you eat vegan doughnuts for breakfast, vegetarian Chinese for lunch, and 13-bean soup for an afternoon snack? Hint: In the same city, you can feast on sustainable fish for dinner, prepared by one of the country's celebrity chefs, and Kind Apple Cobbler for dessert -- the 'raw' version."

Monday, July 17, 2006

Los Angeles Times: "at a time when many of his Democratic colleagues have spent the last decade in a defensive crouch, outmaneuvered by their GOP rivals, Waxman has found another way to have an impact — going outside normal legislative channels to exert influence on issues he cares about. In the process, he has also made himself into what many Republicans consider the biggest pest east of the Mississippi.

The key to Waxman's unlikely success is this: He has assumed a big chunk of the watchdog role usually filled by the entire Congress, probing deep into government programs and problems to oversee a president and GOP he believes have run amok.

As ranking Democrat on the Government Reform Committee — the chief oversight body of the House — Waxman has leveraged every scrap of his party's resources. He has poked and prodded the Bush administration on Iraq's elusive weapons of mass destruction, on faulty prewar intelligence and on Halliburton's questionable contracts.

He has thrown up roadblocks to protect environmental laws he helped pass when Democrats controlled the Hill, including clean-air and food safety rules. He nettles and needles, firing off blistering letters to agency directors, Army generals, the GOP leadership and the president.

But the most effective weapon in Waxman's arsenal is a staff of high-powered lawyers, investigators and technical experts who churn out a steady stream of penetrating and fact-laden reports. Many find their way into headlines."

Drought Threatens Amazon Basin: "Brazil's environment minister, Marina Da Silva, said the drought was linked to record sea temperatures in the south-west Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico that had also contributed to last year's record Atlantic hurricane season.

But the destruction of the rainforest by illegal loggers has also been named as a cause, as rivers become choked with silt swept from the denuded land.

Ecologist Carlos Rittl said the continued removal of trees was a crucial factor in the drying of a region that has already lost 17% of its forest cover. 'The science shows that 50% of the rain comes from the trees recycling the water through evaporation, which creates more rain. If you lose the trees you lose the rainfall. It cannot continue like this,' he said."

Monday, July 10, 2006

Double Rainbow over Colorado Springs... The last week or more has been more like the Pacific Northwest climate than the high desert climate we are used to here on the Front Range of Colorado. Very welcome though. We need the rain!

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Rod Nordland, Baghdad Bureau Chief for Newsweek from 2003 to 2005, says the American public has little idea how bad it is in Iraq because the Bush administration is good at spinning the news. Also, he says, the Pentagon is helping it by screening embeds for their past reporting and excluding those who've written critically.